Elder Scrolls Online

A previously PC-exclusive update for Elder Scrolls Online has finally made it's way to the Xbox One and the PS4. The update in question adds housing to the world of ESO for the first time since the game's release.

The new free update is called Homestead and with it, players will be able to purchase their very own home to call their own. Once a home is purchased, a player can customize the interior in a variety of different ways. The Homestead options available include roughly 40 different rooms and buildings types, ranging in size, price and functionality.

All of the available player houses in Homestead are instanced, so every player can own their own version of any house they please in the game world, so long as they've got the gold for it of course.

The very high-end houses are essentially separate islands off of the mainland of Tamriel. There are ten different types of islands, all of which are themed around one of the 10 playable races in Elder Scrolls Online.

With the introduction of housing, players now have the opportunity to craft new items - all of the 2,000 different decorative interior items can be bought, crafted and traded between players.

This is by no means a necessary update for Elder Scrolls Online so to see that it's been pushed out for free is refreshing and we're excited to see what might come out of the Elder Scrolls Online development camp next.

Recently, Bethesda has revealed plans to hold a press conference at E3 in June, and by the sounds of it, it's going to be pretty big. But what could Bethesda be planning at their upcoming conference?

The first conclusion that many people will jump to is the announcement of Fallout 4. Yes, this could be a possibility, and considering all of the hype surrounding the rumored game so far, it would make sense.

The strange thing is that no matter how large a game Bethesda has announced, we've never seen a press conference as large as Bethesda is making their upcoming E3 conference to be.

Whilst it is planned for E3, the actual conference will be happening a few days before all of the chaos of the gaming show. The event will take place on a Sunday, on June 14th.

Before we straight up say it's most likely to be a Fallout 4 announcement, let's take a look at a few other things Bethesda could potentially show off. Firstly, the Doom reboot we've all been expecting for a long time still hasn't showed it's face - that's one possibility.

If it's not Doom, Bethesda could release their upcoming free to play shooter BattleCry, but we doubt that game would receive a large press conference like the one planned for E3. A new venture into the Elder Scrolls universe could be a possibility too, but it would be odd for Bethesda to release a new Elder Scrolls game before Fallout 4. We'll let you know more as soon as we know more.

MMO fans rejoice, the news you've been waiting to hear since the PC release of the Elder Scrolls Online is finally ready to be heard. That's right, due to a lack of interest, Zenimax have opted to drop the monthly subscription of the Elder Scrolls Online, and it will be opening the game to all players for free.

The new version of the game has been named The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, and whilst new players will still need to purchase the base price of the game, the monthly subscription afterwards will no longer be required. Instead, there will be optional in-game content that can be purchased as DLC content, and players can also purchase in-game currency to spend on certain cosmetic and customization options.

I think it's great to hear that The Elder Scrolls Online has dropped the subscription model. Simply having a one-off fee for the game should be enough as it is, especially considering the game costs as much as a new console game.

Talking about console games, The Elder Scrolls: Tamriel Unlimited will be releasing on consoles shortly as well. Unfortunately the previous launch dates of the console versions of The Elder Scrolls Online have consistently been pushed back. Whilst the PC version of the new PC ESO will release on March 17th, the console versions for the PS4 and the Xbox One will not be released till late 2014.

Will you be picking up the ESO now that the subscription has been removed?

So, the Elder Scrolls Online has been quietly chugging along on the PC for a year now, but the release of the console version of the game has been delayed to a point where nobody knows when it's going to come.

In fact, there was a point where some gamers believed Zenimax had completely abandoned the console port. Recently, it was revealed that Zenimax have still been working on the Xbox One and PS4 version of the Elder Scrolls Online, but they don't want to release it until they have reached a certain developmental milestone with the PC version.

We are surprisingly nearing closer to that point each and every day, and Zenimax have been rumored to be gearing up for a console launch fairly soon. This week, a Microsoft store listing appeared for the Elder Scrolls Online, along with a date which read as the 24th of February.

Shortly after this date was added to the website, the store listing was changed, and the release date is now listed as "2015."

It seems odd that Microsoft would make a specific listing on their store without receiving information from Zenimax themselves, so it could be very possible that the Elder Scrolls Online will release for Xbox One, and most likely the PS4, on the 24th of February.

It sounds as though this is a placeholder date though, and if development hits any snags, it could easily be pushed back a month or two. Either way, the console version of the Elder Scrolls Online really isn't that long off now.

For many, the concept of an Elder Scrolls online game has been buried within countless other games and content that has actually managed to see the light of day since Zenimax's announcement of ESO.

Whilst The Elder Scrolls Online did manage to launch on the PC, Zenimax also promised that the game would come to consoles, but it has been delayed well past it's original launch date, and without much talk about the game by Zenimax, it has mostly been forgotten.

That is until now however, as Zenimax and Bethesda have decided to make a bit of an announcement giving details on what the plans are for the console version of The Elder Scrolls Online in the near future.

This month, Zenimax stated that console ports of ESO is still being worked on, and in fact they are still 'steadily working on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of ESO.'

Zenimax then went on to mention that the console versions of ESO are 'playable and fun right now, but there's still some work to do before we can set an official launch date.'

'First and foremost we want to make sure that two of our most important system still in development - the justice and champion systems - are included in the console release. These two systems will introduce a huge amount of content to the game and we know everyone is looking forward to the new types of gameplay the provide.'

Zenimax mentioned that more news about the ESO for Xbox One and PS4 will be released in 2015, although no release date was given for the game as of yet.

I walked into a local video game retail store earlier this week, and I noticed that they had boxed copies of Elder Scrolls Online for the Xbox One ready for pre-order. I thought this was pretty odd, seeing as development on the game was still well under way, and the release has now been pushed back to late 2014.

Recent news suggests that you should probably not get your hopes up if you do spot a boxed copy of Elder Scrolls Online in-store like I did, because Zenimax Online Studios may have to push back the console release of the MMO game even further.

Creative director for the project, Paul Sage, has stated that their current main goal is to get the console versions of Elder Scrolls Online ready for release at some point this year, but he also mentioned to IGN that he can't promise the game will definitely release at some point this year for consoles.

According to Zenimax, the current delays are due to a series of issues and 'unique problems' specific to the various console platforms.

Hopefully by the time ESO comes to consoles, it will have smoothed out a little, bots will have been removed, and we may even have more changes to the subscription system or price of the game.

As a summary, Elder Scrolls Online was previously planned for a June release on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but it has since been pushed back to an indefinite 'late 2014' release, but Zenimax may push this back further to early to mid 2015.

Last Friday Zenimax Online chose to cut off access to guild banks temporarily, most likely in an attempt to stop players from duplicating gear and equipment via various bank exploits.

Whilst Zenimax didn't mention exactly why they disabled guild banking, it was disabled shortly after a Reddit post pointed out an exploit that allowed players to potentially get infinite gear and currency.

Zenimax has since banned thousands of cheaters according to community forum members, with most of the bans being related to in-game exploits and cheats. It sounds like it's been a rocky start for Zenimax and Elder Scrolls Online, but things will most likely get smoothed out in the future.

If you're a little disappointed that the console release of the Elder Scrolls Online has been pushed back past the PC release, hopefully this news should reassure you a little. MMOs are known for having troubles at their launch, and this is usually because the games are filled with thousands of hours of content, and it's hard for most bugs to found by in-house game testing, and even through various beta tests, some bugs still remain hidden until the floodgates open up and the game releases fully.

The Elder Scrolls Online was released on PC on April 4th, and will be made available on both PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One some time in June. Hopefully by that time all of the game breaking issues will have been resolved.